Do a weekly review

A weekly review is how you keep your system trustworthy. Without it, your lists drift: tasks pile up without context, projects stall, and your Next list fills with things you can't actually act on. A good review catches all of that before it becomes a problem.

David Allen's GTD® framework suggests doing this once a week — ideally at a regular time when you have 30–60 minutes without interruption.

Use the AI-guided weekly review

Nirvana's built-in AI assistant includes a Weekly Review guided workflow that walks you through each step conversationally.

To start it, open the AI panel and type "weekly review" or tap the Weekly Review chip if it appears in the panel.

Learn about the AI assistant →

Do it manually

1. Get to Inbox Zero

Process everything in your Inbox. Every item needs a decision: do it now, delegate it, defer it, or delete it.

  • Move actionable items to Next, Waiting, Scheduled, or Someday.
  • Move multi-step outcomes to Projects.
  • Move reference material to a Reference list.
  • Trash anything you're honestly never going to do.

2. Review your Next list

Scan through Next. Ask: is everything here still relevant? Are there items you've been avoiding? Anything that needs a due date or more context?

Move things you won't get to soon to Someday. Archive what's complete with C (or Cleanup).

3. Review your Waiting list

Check in on everything you're waiting for. Is it still active? Do you need to follow up with someone?

4. Review your Scheduled list

Is anything coming up in the next week or two that requires preparation?

5. Review your Projects list

Every active project should have at least one Next action — something concrete you can actually do. If a project has no next action, it's stalled. Add one.

Ask: is this project still a priority? If not, move it to Someday.

6. Review your Someday list

Anything here that's now ready to become active? Anything that should just be deleted?

7. Check your Focus list

Unfocus anything that's no longer a current priority. The Focus list works best when it's short and intentional.

8. Clean up Done items

Press C in the web app (or tap Cleanup) to move all completed items to the Logbook and clear your Done groups.

Make it a habit

Create a recurring task as a reminder:

  1. Create a task called "Weekly Review".
  2. Set it to repeat weekly on your preferred day.
  3. Give it a start date so it appears in Focus automatically each week.